بدل ما اروح عالشغل بالباص، رحت بتاكسي.

بدل ما is a very common Levantine way to say instead of or rather than.

In this sentence, it introduces the action that was the expected or original option, but did not happen.

A very useful pattern is:

بدل ما + imperfect verb

Examples:

• بدل ما نام، ضل صاحي = Instead of sleeping, he stayed awake
• بدل ما نطبخ، طلبنا أكل = Instead of cooking, we ordered food

So here, بدل ما اروح... means instead of going...

That is a very common learner question.

In Levantine, the bare imperfect verb (without بـ) often appears after certain words and structures, including بدل ما.

So:

• بروح = I go / I usually go / I am going
• اروح = a more neutral/subjunctive-like imperfect, often used after particles like بدل ما

So after بدل ما, اروح is the natural choice:

• بدل ما اروح = instead of going

Using بروح here would usually sound less natural in careful Levantine speech.

Because the two clauses are doing different jobs:

• اروح describes the action that was the alternative or unrealized option
• رحت describes what actually happened

So Levantine uses:

• بدل ما + imperfect for the action that was replaced
• past tense for the real completed action

That is why the sentence works like this:

• بدل ما اروح... = instead of going...
• رحت... = I went...

This is very similar to English, where we often say:

• Instead of going..., I went...

عالشغل is a shortened spoken form of:

على الشغل

In Levantine, على is very often reduced to عَ in speech. When that comes before الـ, they merge:

• على + الشغل → عَالشغل

So عالشغل literally contains:

• عَ = on/to
• الشغل = the work / work

In this sentence, عالشغل means to work.

Also, because ش is a sun letter, the ل of الـ is not pronounced separately. So it sounds like:

• عَشّغل or more carefully عَشْشُغل

Because prepositions do not match English one-for-one.

In Levantine, it is very normal to say:

• راح عالشغل = he went to work
• أنا عالشغل = I’m at work

So على / عَ is often used with places and destinations in everyday speech.

It does not mean English on here in a literal sense. It is just the natural dialect choice.

A learner should treat راح عَ... as a very common pattern for went to...

Here, بـ marks the means of transportation. It often means by, in, or with, depending on context.

So:

• بالباص = by bus / on the bus
• بتاكسي = by taxi / in a taxi

This is a very common pattern in Levantine:

• بالسيارة = by car
• بالقطار = by train
• بالطيارة = by plane

Also note:

• بـ + الـ becomes بالـ
• so بـ + الباص = بالباص

Both patterns are possible in Levantine, and this is partly a matter of usage and what sounds natural with a given noun.

You may hear:

• بالباص
• بتاكسي
• and also sometimes بالتاكسي

In this sentence:

• بالباص sounds very natural for a regular means of transport like the bus
• بتاكسي also sounds very natural because it suggests by taxi / in a taxi

So the difference here is not a big grammar issue. It is more about normal idiomatic usage.

A helpful takeaway:

• with transport words, article usage can vary
• you should learn the most common spoken combinations as chunks

Yes—if you want a more careful spelling, it would usually be written أروح.

In informal Levantine writing, people very often leave out hamzas, especially in texting, casual writing, or dialect writing.

So both of these may appear:

• أروح
• اروح

The second one is very common in informal contexts, but the pronunciation is still basically the same.

This is normal in colloquial Arabic writing:

• spelling is often less standardized than in Modern Standard Arabic

A common Levantine-style pronunciation would be something like:

badal ma aruuḥ ʿash-shughl bil-baaṣ, riḥet b-taksi

A few notes:

• بدل = badal or sometimes closer to bdal in fast speech
• عالشغل = ʿash-shughl
• الباص = il-baaṣ or el-baaṣ, depending on region
• رحت is often pronounced riḥet or reḥet
• بتاكسي = b-taksi

Regional pronunciation varies, but the overall structure stays the same.

Usually, that would sound less natural for this meaning.

After بدل ما, Levantine normally prefers the imperfect verb to express the action that was the alternative:

• بدل ما اروح... not usually
• بدل ما رحت...

Why? Because the first action is not being presented as the real completed event. It is the option that was replaced.

So the natural pattern is:

• بدل ما + imperfect
• then the real action in whatever tense fits, here past

That is why بدل ما اروح... رحت... is the best choice here.